WordPress: The Missing Manual

WordPress: The Missing Manual

by Matthew MacDonald
Released October 2012
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781449309848

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Book description

Whether you’re a budding blogger or web development professional, WordPress is a brilliant tool for creating websites—if you know how to tap its impressive features. This jargon-free Missing Manual shows you how to use WordPress and its themes, plug-ins, and widgets to build just about any website you can imagine, from a classy blog to a basic e-commerce site.

Table of contents

  1. WordPress: The Missing Manual
  2. A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
  3. The Missing Credits
    1. About the Author
    2. About the Creative Team
    3. Acknowledgments
    4. The Missing Manual Series
  4. Introduction
    1. The Very Basics of Reading This Book
      1. About→These→Arrows
    2. About WordPress
      1. What You Need to Know
      2. Your Computer
      3. Hosting WordPress
    3. About this Book
    4. About the Online Resources
      1. Web Links
      2. Living Examples
      3. Registration
      4. Feedback
      5. Errata
    5. Using Code Examples
    6. Safari® Books Online
  5. 1. Starting Out with WordPress
    1. 1. The WordPress Landscape
      1. How WordPress Works
        1. WordPress Behind the Scenes
        2. WordPress Themes
      2. What You Can Build with WordPress
        1. Blogs
        2. Other Types of WordPress Sites
          1. Stories and Articles
          2. Catalogs
          3. Business Sites
      3. WordPress Hosting
        1. Choosing Where to Host Your Site
        2. WordPress.com Sites vs. Self-Hosted Sites
    2. 2. Signing Up with WordPress.com
      1. Choosing a Web Address
      2. Creating Your WordPress.com Account
        1. Buying a Domain Name After Sign-Up
        2. Using a Domain Name You Already Own
          1. Mapping an Entire Domain Name
          2. Mapping a Subdomain
          3. Finishing the Job: Setting Up the WordPress.com Mapping
      3. The WordPress.com Community
        1. Browsing Other WordPress.com Sites
        2. Liking Posts and Following Blogs
    3. 3. Installing WordPress on Your Web Host
      1. Preparing for WordPress
        1. Where to Put WordPress
        2. Creating a Subdomain
        3. The Administrator Account
      2. Installing WordPress with an Autoinstaller
        1. Installing WordPress with Fantastico
        2. Installing WordPress with Softaculous
      3. Installing WordPress by Hand
        1. Create a MySQL Database
        2. Uploading the WordPress Files
        3. Running the Install Script
      4. Maintaining Your Site
        1. Updating WordPress
        2. Backing Up Your Site
  6. 2. Building a WordPress Blog
    1. 4. Creating Posts
      1. Introducing the Dashboard
        1. The Menu
        2. The Home Page
        3. Dashboard Practice: Changing Basic Settings
      2. Adding Your First Post
        1. Creating a New Post
        2. Browsing Your Posts
        3. Delayed Publishing
        4. Changing Your Nickname
        5. Editing a Post
        6. Deleting a Post
        7. Creating a Sticky Post
      3. Organizing Your Posts
        1. Understanding Categories
        2. Categorizing Posts
        3. Using Subcategories
        4. Managing Categories
        5. Understanding Tags
        6. Tagging Posts
      4. How to Get High-Quality URLs
        1. Permalinks in WordPress.com
        2. Permalinks on a Self-Hosted Site
        3. Changing a Post’s Permalink
        4. Getting a Shorter Version of Your URL
      5. Dashboard Tricks to Save Time and Effort
        1. Customizing a Dashboard Page
        2. Getting Help
        3. Taking Charge of the List of Posts
        4. Performing Bulk Actions
    2. 5. Choosing and Polishing Your WordPress Theme
      1. How Themes Work
      2. Tweaking Your Theme
        1. Basic Theme Options
        2. Configuring the Header
        3. Configuring the Background
      3. Customizing Your Widgets
        1. Positioning Your Widgets
        2. Changing Widget Settings
        3. The Basic Widgets
        4. The Calendar Widget
        5. The Links Widget
        6. The Tag Cloud Widget
        7. The Text Widget
      4. Choosing a New Theme
        1. Activating a Theme in WordPress.com
        2. Installing a Theme on a Self-Hosted Site
        3. The Theme Customizer
        4. Mobile Themes
    3. 6. Jazzing Up Your Posts
      1. Making Fancier Posts
        1. Using Subheadings
        2. Showing a Code Listing
        3. Adding Links
        4. Inserting Special Characters
        5. Using the HTML View
        6. Using Post Formats
      2. Using Pictures
        1. Putting Pictures in a Post
        2. Featured Images
      3. The Media Library
        1. Deleting Pictures from the Library
        2. Adding Pictures to the Library
      4. Showing Part of a Post
        1. Displaying Teasers Using the “More” Quicktag
        2. Dividing a Post into Multiple Pages
        3. Summarizing Posts with Excerpts
        4. Using Excerpts on Your Home Page
    4. 7. Adding Pages and Menus
      1. Creating Pages
      2. Viewing Pages
        1. Showing Pages in the Pages Widget
        2. Showing Pages in a Menu
        3. Ordering and Grouping Pages
      3. Custom Menus
        1. Building a Custom Menu
        2. Multiple Menus
        3. The Custom Menu Widget
      4. Changing Your Home Page
        1. Creating a Brochure Site
        2. Creating a Custom Entry Page
        3. Pages with Sidebars
        4. Showcase Pages
    5. 8. Comments: Letting Your Readers Talk Back
      1. Allowing or Forbidding Comments
        1. Changing Comment Settings for a Post
        2. Changing the Default Comment Settings Site-Wide
      2. The Life Cycle of a Comment
        1. Leaving a Comment
        2. Moderating Comments Through Email
        3. Moderating Comments from the Dashboard
        4. Sanitizing Comments
      3. The Ongoing Conversation
        1. Threaded Comments
        2. Paged Comments
        3. Advertising a Post’s Comments
        4. Comment Ratings
        5. Linkbacks
      4. Making Comments More Personal
        1. The Gravatar Service
        2. Signing Up with Gravatar
        3. Changing the “Mystery Man” Gravatar
        4. Gravatar Hovercards
        5. Facebook and Twitter Comments
      5. Stamping Out Comment Spam
        1. Understanding Spam
        2. Spam-Fighting Strategies
        3. Understanding Akismet
        4. Installing Akismet
        5. Using Akismet
        6. Fighting Spam with Captcha
  7. 3. Supercharging Your Blog
    1. 9. Getting New Features with Plug-Ins
      1. Managing Plug-Ins
        1. How Plug-Ins Work
        2. Searching for a Plug-In
        3. Installing a Plug-In
        4. Activating a Plug-In
      2. The Jetpack Plug-In
        1. Signing Up with WordPress.com
        2. Using the Image Widget
        3. Adding a Contact Form
        4. Adding a Mathematical Equation
      3. Adding Mobile Support
        1. The WPtouch Mobile Theme
        2. Configuring WPtouch
      4. Backing Up a WordPress Site
        1. Using an Automated Backup Service
        2. Backing Up with a Plug-In
        3. The Online Backup for WordPress Plug-In
        4. Restoring Your Site
      5. Better Performance with Caching
    2. 10. Adding Picture Galleries, Video, and Music
      1. Understanding Embeds and Shortcodes
        1. Automatic Embeds
        2. Shortcodes
      2. Showing Groups of Pictures
        1. Creating a Gallery
        2. Editing a Gallery
        3. Creating a Gallery with Pictures from Your Media Library
        4. Creating a Slideshow
        5. Themes that Make the Most of Pictures
      3. Embedding a Video Window
        1. Showing a YouTube Video
        2. Configuring the YouTube Video Window
        3. Showing Videos from Other Video Services
        4. Premium Video Hosting
      4. Playing Audio Files
        1. Adding a Basic Audio Player
        2. Using a Music Sharing Service
        3. Podcasting
          1. Creating Podcast-Friendly Audio
          2. Getting Your Podcast Feed
    3. 11. Collaborating with Multiple Authors
      1. Adding Users to Your Site
        1. Creating a New User for a Self-Hosted Site
        2. Inviting Users to a WordPress.com Site
      2. Working with Authors
        1. The Post Approval Process
        2. Browsing an Author’s Posts
        3. Adding Author Information
        4. Removing Authors (and Other Users)
      3. Building a Private Community
        1. Hiding and Locking Posts
        2. Creating a Completely Private Site
        3. Letting People Register Themselves on a Self-Hosted Site
      4. Creating a Network of Sites
        1. Creating a Multisite Network from Scratch
        2. Converting an Existing Site to a Multisite Network
        3. Your Multisite Network: A First Look
        4. Adding a Site to Your Network
        5. Understanding How Users Work in a Multisite Network
        6. Rolling Out Updates
        7. Adding Themes and Plug-Ins
    4. 12. Attracting a Crowd
      1. Encouraging Your Readers to Share
        1. How Sharing Buttons Work
        2. Adding Sharing Buttons
        3. More Ways to Customize Your Sharing Buttons
        4. Letting People Like Your Site
        5. Using WordPress.com Ratings
      2. Keeping Readers in the Loop
        1. Making Email Subscriptions More Accessible
        2. Emailing Your Subscribers (Without WordPress’s Help)
        3. Publicizing Your Posts on Social Media (with WordPress.com)
        4. Showing Your Own Tweets on Your Site
      3. Notifying Readers by Using Feeds
        1. Getting Customized Feeds
        2. Using a Feed Widget
      4. Search Engine Optimization
        1. PageRank: Scoring Your Site
          1. Finding Your PageRank
        2. Making Your Site Google-Friendly
        3. Boosting SEO with a Plug-In
          1. Creating an XML Sitemap
          2. Tweaking Titles and Descriptions
      5. WordPress Site Statistics
        1. Viewing Your Statistics
        2. Strategy 1. Find Out What Your Readers Like
        3. Strategy 2. Who’s Giving You the Love?
        4. Strategy 3. Play Well with Search Engines
        5. Strategy 4. Meet Your Top Commenters
  8. 4. From Blog to Website
    1. 13. Editing Themes: The Key to Customizing Your Site
      1. The Goal: More Flexible Blogs and Sites
        1. WordPress Sites (That Aren’t Blogs)
        2. Getting Ready
      2. Taking Control of Your Theme
        1. How WordPress Stores Themes
        2. Style.css: How a Theme Identifies Itself
        3. The Theme Editor
      3. Protecting Yourself with a Child Theme
        1. Creating a Child Theme
        2. How Child Themes Work
      4. Editing the Styles in Your Theme
        1. Taking a Look at the Style Rules in Your Theme
          1. Decoding a Basic Rule
          2. Other Types of Selectors
          3. Combining Selectors
        2. Changing the Twenty Eleven Theme
        3. Using Fancy Fonts
      5. Editing the Code in Your Theme
        1. Introducing the Template Files
        2. A Basic Editing Example
          1. Step 1. Find the Template File
          2. Step 2. Create a Copy of the Template File
          3. Step 3. Examine the Template File
          4. Step 4. Make Your Change
        3. Delving into the Loop
          1. Step 1. Prepare the Template File
          2. Step 2. Examine the Template File
          3. Step 3. Add New Code
          4. Step 4. Add a New Style
        4. Extending WordPress with Functions.php
    2. 14. Building an Advanced WordPress Site
      1. Planning Your Site
        1. Deciding Between Posts and Pages
        2. Adding Content
        3. Picking a Theme
        4. Creating a Custom Copy of a Theme
      2. Creating Custom Category Pages
        1. Adding a Category Description
        2. Finding the Right Template File
        3. Changing the Title
        4. Adding Extra Information
        5. Reordering Posts
        6. Removing the Post Footers
      3. Building a Better Home Page
        1. Cleaning Out the Template
        2. Adding Text
        3. Creating the Links
      4. From Post to Product Page
        1. Cleaning Out the Template
        2. Adding the Sidebar Content
        3. Custom Fields: Adding Extra Pieces of Information to a Post
        4. Sites with More than One Type of Post
      5. Adding E-Commerce
        1. Signing Up with PayPal
        2. Installing the Shopping Cart Plug-In
        3. Adding the Shopping Cart
  9. 5. Appendixes
    1. A. Migrating from WordPress.com
      1. Before You Begin
      2. Transferring Your Data
        1. Exporting Your Data from WordPress.com
        2. Importing Your Data into a Self-Hosted Site
      3. Cleaning Up Your New Site
        1. Migrating Your Theme
        2. Missing WordPress.com Features
        3. Permalinks
        4. Redirecting Your Address
          1. Keeping Your Custom Domain
          2. Moving from .WordPress.com
    2. B. Useful Websites
      1. Chapter Links
        1. Chapter 1 The WordPress Landscape
        2. Chapter 2 Signing Up with WordPress.com
        3. Chapter 3 Installing WordPress on Your Web Host
        4. Chapter 4 Creating Posts
        5. Chapter 5 Choosing and Polishing Your WordPress Theme
        6. Chapter 6 Jazzing Up Your Posts
        7. Chapter 8 Comments: Letting Your Readers Talk Back
        8. Chapter 9 Getting New Features with Plug-Ins
        9. Chapter 10 Adding Picture Galleries, Video, and Music
        10. Chapter 11 Collaborating with Multiple Authors
        11. Chapter 12 Attracting a Crowd
        12. Chapter 13 Editing Themes: The Key to Customizing Your Site
        13. Chapter 14 Building an Advanced WordPress Site
  10. Index
  11. About the Author
  12. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: WordPress: The Missing Manual
  • Author(s): Matthew MacDonald
  • Release date: October 2012
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781449309848